At Annual Gala, Asian-American Bar Association Honors Diversity Progress in the Law
Caroline Tsai, the executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Western Union, was an honoree at the event in San Francisco.
March 23, 2018 at 05:36 PM
3 minute read
Photo credit: Caroline Spiezio/ALM
The floor at Bently Reserve in downtown San Francisco was filled with attorneys laughing and celebrating late Thursday night at the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area's 42nd annual gala—and with good reason.
The Asian American Bar Association completed its “20×20” challenge three years early. Wilson Chu, a partner at McDermott Will & Emery, and Don Liu, executive vice president and chief legal and risk officer at Target Corp., started the initiative in 2015, setting the goal of 20 Asian-American general counsel at Fortune 500 companies by 2020.
Caroline Tsai became the 20th after her promotion to general counsel of Western Union in December 2017.
Tsai was one of the night's honorees and winner of the AABA General Counsel Milestone Award. Though she wasn't able to attend in person, she wrote a speech read aloud by Varian Medical Systems GC John Kuo at the beginning of the night.
“Don Liu and Wilson Chu have made an incredible impact on the pipeline of talent,” Tsai wrote. Her remarks said that through “20×20,” the two prominent attorneys linked Asian-American lawyers with headhunters, who provided advice for landing a GC role, giving recommendations on everything from how to dress and speak to how to write a killer resume.
As part of the initiative, the two have also worked alongside Jean Lee, president and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, to help Asian-American lawyers focus on the soft skills needed to climb to leadership and executive positions. Chu said his new goal is to have 50 Asian-American GCs in the Fortune 500, proportional to the number of Asian-American students graduating top law schools.
“Even with 20 Asian American General Counsel at Fortune 500 companies, and the Bay Area's milestone of reaching 100 Asian American General Counsel, Asian Americans are still underrepresented in the top-ranking positions within the legal profession,” wrote AABA president David Tsai. “A cultural shift needs to take place in the corporate and large firm environment so that there can be more underrepresented minorities in the C-suite and corner offices.”
Thursday's event also honored several other community leaders, including the late San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, who passed away last December. Lee, the city's first Asian-American mayor, was given the AABA Trailblazer Award, which his wife Anita accepted.
Define America's Chief Executive Officer Jose Antonio Vargas was given the AABA Social Justice Award for his work with undocumented immigrants and immigrant rights, and Judge Andrew Cheng and Judge Cynthia Lee of the San Francisco Superior Court won the AABA outstanding jurist award.
Minami Tamaki associate Lisa Mak was presented the Joe Morozumi Award for her legal advocacy. In her speech, Mak thanked the AABA and spoke of the need for more minority representation in legal leadership.
“I didn't know that many successful minority attorneys. I didn't have any role models who looked like me,” Mak said, speaking about her time in school. “And now I know so many, and many are in this room tonight.”
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